As has been pointed out in U.S. Pat. No. 3,560,907, there is an ever increasing trend toward increasing miniaturization of electrical and electronic circuits, accompanying which is the continuing problem of making effective electrical connections to such circuits without adversely affecting, or possibly destroying, the circuits. This problem becomes especially acute in manufacturing testing where it may be necessary to take circuit readings at a large number of different points, and, of course, leave the circuit unimpaired by the testing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,560,907 relates to an electrical contact wherein the end of the contact is adapted to be brought into abutment with the circuit under test such that all resilient motion is normal to the circuit, thereby reducing "scrubbing" which can easily destroy deposited circuit elements. The contacts of said patent are quite adequate for numerous applications. However, we have found that a novel contact, hereinafter described, is vastly superior for testing, primarily active testing rather than passive testing, involving high frequencies of the type which are becoming more prevalent in the computer and other arts. This novel contact is believed to represent a major advance in the field and its widespread adoption is to be expected.
In another aspect, stray radio frequencies are oftimes present in proximity to where test contacts or probes are used. It has found that this condition can interfere with or destroy the accuracy of the test. The device of the present invention also solves this problem by the shielding of the contact from external or stray radio frequencies.